


you gave your body to the lonely

by Starofwinter



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning, Haunting, Lonely!Martin, The Lonely - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-23
Updated: 2019-08-23
Packaged: 2020-09-24 09:41:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20356378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starofwinter/pseuds/Starofwinter
Summary: There's a ghost in the archives.





	you gave your body to the lonely

**Author's Note:**

> Title from [To Be Alone With You](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_paxKhWy3o) by Sufjan Stevens, which is a very Jon/Martin song.

_ The archive is haunted _ , they say.

It’s little things that prove it. Little gestures.

A blanket over a sleeping grad student. A mysteriously well-organized stack of files for a researcher after they mumble in exasperation over not finding what they need. A warm cup of tea and a packet of biscuits waiting in the lounge.

There’s a ghost in the archives.

Everyone who works there knows it. They know  _ him _ . Jonathan greets him when he walks in every morning. “Hello Martin. I brought you some more tea,” he says, “You were getting low.”

There’s no answer, but he can imagine a cool hand that just brushes his cheek. 

It feels… nice, knowing that he can’t hurt Martin, or drag up his worst nightmares. Most times, he feels guilty when he thinks about it. He can’t hurt Martin because he can’t See Martin, because there is no Martin left to be Seen. Sometimes, there’s only relief.

Martin makes his presence known, leaving reports on their desks, relevant to whatever threads of information they’re puzzling out. He might have lied on his CV, but he has a talent for archival and research work - Jon tries hard not to think about how much that cost him, in the end. 

He doesn’t leave very often these days, none of them do. Jon’s caught all of them talking to Martin, making sure that he knows they haven’t forgotten him. He’s even caught Melanie, deep in Artifact Storage, screaming at him for leaving them alone; he didn’t let her know he was there, just left her to it as she apologized to Martin for shouting at him. 

Peter Lukas has been making himself scarce lately. Maybe because he knows he isn’t welcome; Jon isn’t entirely sure he could be in the same room as Lukas without doing something rash, and he’s positive that Basira, Daisy, and Melanie feel the same. 

“I promise we’ll find a way to bring you back,” Jon says to empty air, “I promise, Martin. We won’t lose you.”

The ghost that Martin has become doesn’t answer. He tries not to feel a pang of grief.


End file.
